Monday, October 29, 2012

A weekend to remember

“With an enthusiastic team you can achieve almost anything.” - Tahir Shah

Flyball has always been a large part of our lives here at Inseguire. It keeps our terriers physically and mentally challenged and through the sport we have made some very close friendships. We spend numerous weekends a year in a building filled with dogs and often "roughing it" camping nearby overnight. We have made many many friends across the country and developed many close relationships. All of us fuelled and tied together by this insane desire to surround ourselves by too many barking dogs! And it all began when Sadie and I moved across the country and needed something to do.

An offhanded trip to a local canine event gave me my first expose to flyball and after signing up for a beginner class I was hooked. Sadie was a relatively ease dog to train and despite taking time off to whelp 2 litters and almost having a career ending accident in 2010 thatbtook almost a yet to recover from she has run solidly for almost 5 years and served height dog duties for no less than 9 clubs! She has given me a foundation from which has built and incredible legacy of flyball Jack Russells.

Sadie's first litter gave us Cali who has been a reliable little height dog earning over 15,000 points and serving as a division 1 height dog for the last 2.5 years. Her litter mate Topher who plays for our good friends the Hotdoggers has earned over 10,000 points in limited outings and often run double time at the tournaments so more teams can play. From her second litter both Tov and Kiwi have raced reliably since their first tournament in 2011 earning their 15,000 (FMCh) and 10,000 (FMX) titles respectively. Both also run consistently in the mid 4s with Kiwi breaking into the 4.3s at this past tournament. From Cali's first litter little Loki is now a titled dog with a bright future making her generation number three for our kennel.

So what does all this have to do with this past weekend? Well as we watched Kiwi earn her FMX and put her first 4.3 on the clock, Tov earn her FMCh, and little Loki debut solidly in the pack and earn her FD and FDX, Sadie eclipsed them all and earned her first "big" title, her ONYX, that NAFA commemorates with an engraved plaque. It was a very special moment for me as she is already 9 and while she shows few signs if slowing down I had been chasing this moment all year - actually I had been chasing this moment for almost 5 years - and nothing could have been sweeter than sharing that moment with my very special friend and ever constant terrier companion. Sadie has given me so much and I wanted this for her so to have it all come tighter this weekend with all her children and grandchildren there to see it was icing on the cake.

And with that we will settle in for the winter and look forward with excitement and anticipation to what 2013 will have in store for our little furry herd.